The dream states of Doug Tuttle

The aesthetic formula on Doug Tuttle’s first three solo albums is simple enough: Write flawless pop-rock songs, then cocoon them in a gentle psychedelic haze. That’s the way it looks from the outside, at least. On the inside, he says it’s not quite so picturesque.

“The music of the ‘60s and ‘70s is definitely my favorite stuff, but I think most of the weirdness in my music comes from me trying to hide mistakes,” Tuttle says with a chuckle. “If something’s not quite working, I just keep layering and layering and layering and adding a lot of strange effects to it until it’s buried.”

Doug Tuttle is exceedingly soft-spoken and self-effacing, especially for a guy who has played an active and multi-faceted role in the New England underground scene over the past decade. Before he started putting out solo records, he played in New Hampshire psychedelic rock band MMOSS from 2006 to 2013. In addition to making music, Tuttle also designs, builds and sells guitar-effects pedals under the name Mid-Fi Electronics. And he does it all from his apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, not far from downtown Boston.

“I have to wait until no one’s home to record drums,” he says, “and then I just do it as fast as I can.”

In 2014, Tuttle emerged from the ashes of MMOSS with a self-titled album that established him as an expert alchemist of lush, Beatles-inspired pop and light psych touches. He stuck to that formula for 2016’s It Calls On Me, but then shifted his perspective slightly last year on Peace Potato, which has more tracks than its predecessors, all of which are significantly shorter than on past albums.

That’s by design. The album is supposed to feel like a night of waking dreams—like dropping in and out of sleepy sub-consciousness.

“I have this thing where I dream about real pop songs but they don’t sound like they do in real life. It’ll be some nightmarish thing instead,” Tuttle says. “That’s where the short songs come from. Each one is a reference to a song from a dream, and I tried my best to approximate the weirdness.”

That weirdness fills in the cracks between Peace Potato’s steady stream of beautiful pop-rock songs. “Home Again,” with its lullaby arpeggios, warm-glow guitar and whispered vocal melody, creates the feeling of being in a dream state. “Life Boat” is a strangely comforting pile of sloshing sounds, simple bass and synth drone. And the instrumental, fingerpicked title track is both elegantly tuneful and frayed at the edges; it sounds like solo acoustic guitar hero John Fahey steeped in battery acid instead of the blues.

Otherwise, Peace Potato pulses with kaleidoscopic vibes. There are sparkling acoustic strummers (“Can It Be,” “In Your Light”), psychedelic mini-jams (“It’s Alright With Me, Ma,” “Bait the Sun”), somber-sounding songs (“Don’t Worry,” “YCNTIOYO”) and little slices of lysergic bliss (“All You See,” “Only In A Dream”). Each one is an earworm, and collectively, they’re like an extended peek at the bottomless pool of melody in Tuttle’s head. It’s a testament to that pool that Peace Potato feels sunny and serene. Still, Tuttle says that was not the intent.

“It wasn’t necessarily meant to be a soothing record. The vibe I get from it is pretty dark,” he says. “There are some poppy tunes on it but overall I think it’s a dark record.”

The tour that will bring Tuttle to San Diego is his first on the West Coast. It also may be his last. Touring at his level is a serious financial challenge, and Tuttle—at least for the moment—has decided to stay off the road and stay home to focus on writing, recording and Mid-Fi Electronics, which keeps him from working a day job.

“I’ve done a good amount of touring over the past few years and it just doesn’t go as well as I hope it would most of the time,” he says. “It’s really expensive. I don’t own a car, so it means renting a van and paying people to play with me. And then if no one comes to the show, it’s kind of a bummer.

“I like touring,” he continues, “but it just isn’t sustainable at a point where you’re losing money every time you go out.”

With more time at home, Tuttle’s Bandcamp page bustled in 2017. Besides Peace Potato, he uploaded Deeper Peace, a lo-fi recording of solo songs that predates MMOSS and shows off his experimental side and his interest in Eastern sounds. He also posted a collection of more recent demos and outtakes. (Tuttle often records multiple versions of a single song with different production treatments.) And in October, he and his friend Matt Lajoie (of the band Herbcraft) put out an album of guitar improvisations called American Primate.

As for whether less touring will lead to more releases, Tuttle isn’t so sure. Then again, he isn’t so sure about anything right now.

“This is just how I am. It takes me eight or nine months to write or record an album, so that’s when they come out,” he says, pausing to reset his thoughts as if to reflect on both the uncertainties and opportunities ahead. “I just don’t know what I’m doing at this point at all. I’m going to keep making records. I’m not on a label at the moment. So I can kind of do whatever I want.”